If I may, I recommend "Conservatives Without Conscience', by John Dean (yes that John Dean) which brilliantly describes the history of conservatism and the metamorphosis of the conservative movement into a party of authoritarian social dominators. There are several fascinating chapters on the psychology that permits the enormous hypocrisy and blindness of these politicians.

One of the greatest hypocrisies of this time is the cry to reform education, when two decades have passed while a hidden war on teachers pushed the experienced, dedicated practitioners out of the schools, while the union and the media looked the other way. (go to http://www.endteacher abuse to read the stories of teachers deprived of due process under the law, and subjected to abuse that comes when powerful administrators break the law for so long, that they think they are the law.)
In the end, when people look back at the moments that defined the end of the golden age of America, when they look through the lens of history at the debacle of this debt debate which demonstrated to the world that our government was dysfunctional, when they look at the financial fiasco where the American middle class lost its wealth to financiers who gambled with the publics savings and to lenders who packaged junk and sold it as bonds (and who never paid for their crime) as borrowers lost their homes and jobs, what will be noted as the major factor in the decline of American democracy and power in the first decade of the 21st century, will be the destruction of the education system.

In NYC alone over two decades, thousands of robust, educated, talented, experienced and dedicated professionals were forced to retire by methods so egregious that no ethnic minority would stand by for such treatment and not a newspaper or tv network exposed the corruption -- so powerful were the people who controlled everything and who benefit by the failure of education, by creating an ignorant population who cannot tell truth from lies and who will elect the politicians the barons of industry select and finance.

The result is what you describe Mr Oberman. The executive office, the congress, the supreme court all are managed by the military/industrial complex because it is their money which makes it possible to be elected or appointed, so let's point the finger of blame where it belongs, at the very cartel which Eisnehower warned us about.

And Mr Oberman, since five giant corporations control the media, the people of this country,who get 92% of their 'news' from tv, are so stressed and confused, and ignorant of context and history, that they bought the GOP line and you see the result.

HarborGuy

Walt...I've stolen your post a couple of times and have placed it on other sites...I gave you credit...and thank you for saying it so well.

Luci is correct...What you said needs to be all over the TV machine.

Thank you!

HarborGuy

Super duper thanks for posting this Paddy...I stopped making dinner when he was doing this.

Anonymous

Your post needs to be an ad. It needs to be placed all over the t.v. machine. True words indeed.

Walt

While Keith made some poignant points while expressing his anger and frustration I don't think he gave a fully fair viewpoint of this outcome. And I don't know how it serves the viewers by getting them angry at the president and the Democratic Congress.

The real issue of our anger should be the Republican Party. Their politicians, their media,
their voters, and their financial funders have been atrocious during
Obama's presidency. They are obvious hypocrites who do not play by the
rules but demand that the Democrats do. They have obstructed every good
bill put out by the Democrats. They have used every dirty trick
including racism to attempt to character assassinate the first elected
black president to the United States. They have not governed in honor.
We have seen what the midterm elections has done to these states that
elected tea party governors and legislatures who are doing all they can
to oppress the poor, the elderly, and working class while subverting
Democracy. They are not creating jobs, they are killing jobs.

The
most important election in 2012 is not going to be the presidency. It
is Congress. The American Fascist has completely taken over the
Republican Party. FOX News and Rush Limbaugh is not only a cancer that
has spread across this country but they are the Republican Party. Our
political system is broken because of the corruption of money. But the
Republican Party, sure as hell, is not going to fix this because they
can't succeed without that corrupted money. If we are ever going to
"right this ship" you have to get out there and vote in true
progressives on all levels of government. Remember that in 2012.
Remember who the real enemy is.

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